


Freefall Awaits the Brave

by katajainen



Series: Freefall [1]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Kiss, Light Angst, M/M, Prompt Fill, Sibling Incest, alcohol mention
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-24 23:18:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14964125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katajainen/pseuds/katajainen
Summary: First move's on Kili - with some liquid courage.





	Freefall Awaits the Brave

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous on Tumblr prompted from [this list](https://katajainen.tumblr.com/post/174749247517/protective-sentence-starters): “Hey, it’s cold outside. At least wear a jacket.” or “You’ll back off if you know what’s good for you.” or “Well what did you expect would happen when you’re walking alone at night? Come on, let’s get you away from that creep.” 
> 
> I went with the first option, hope you enjoy this!
> 
> Also, this is set vaguely in the same verse as [A Brief Interlude in August](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14839407), but a couple of years earlier.
> 
> Title from the Nightwish song 'Élan'.
> 
> As always, thanks to Saraste for the look-see.

Kili sunk deeper into his corner of the couch, the neck of the bottle in his hand cool and slippery from condensation.

It wasn’t fair.

Because well, yes, Fili did look gorgeous, with his golden hair flecked with multi-coloured specks of light from the disco ball they’d hung off the living room ceiling for larks, and wearing those jeans that hugged his bum just right, dancing with effortless grace.

And it _was_ Fili’s birthday, and fine, they’d all had a few, but that was what parties were for. It still didn’t mean that everyone suddenly had a free pass to ogle at his brother like they wanted to eat him up. It wasn’t fair because the worst thing anyone would call it was rude.

But if someone could read Kili’s mind, ‘rude’ would be the kindest thing they could say. Heck– he picked irritably at the label on the bottle, tearing off one ragged strip after another– he probably shouldn’t even be _looking_ at him the way he did, but there was no helping it. If only he _could_ do something about it, anything at all… He toyed with the empty bottle in his hands, and thought about getting another, but the music was beating restlessly in his bones, pulling him up and moving him forward, even if some more sober part of his brain said it was a bad idea.

Dancing was all right, wasn’t it? That’s what people did at parties.

And the living room was small, and the dance floor smaller, so it was only natural for him to gravitate towards Fili, or to bump against him every now and then. He _was_ a bit soused, after all.

He tried to make it look like a hug-tackle, or that he tripped over his own feet. Except it was no accident that his mouth happened to collide with Fili’s.

For a single shocked moment, Fili stood completely still, then made to push him off, and Kili let him.

‘Hey, what was that? You’re not that drunk, are you?’ Fili laughed, shaking him lightly by the shoulders. ‘– are you?’

‘Nah.’ Kili tried to brush it off, but there had been that note of concern in his brother’s voice, and he hated it. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. ‘ ‘m fine,’ he mumbled, turned on his heel and stalked towards the kitchen.

‘That makes how many again?’ That was Ori, who was in Fili’s year at the Uni. He was loading the dishwasher, of all things. Who does that at a party?

‘Two,’ Kili said and popped the cork off the bottle. More like four, if he remembered right. ‘And you’re not my mum, so it’s none of your business.’

‘Fine, fine–’ Ori lifted his hands in a placating gesture– ‘It’s just…’ he trailed off.

It’s just he was seventeen, and he wasn’t a child. Kili stared right back at Ori and downed half of his beer with a single gulp.

There were more people Kili didn’t know hanging out on the front yard, trailing streamers of cigarette smoke into the cold air. One of them might have called after him, asked where he was going, and he might have flicked two fingers at them.

Whatever.

The playground was empty, and a bit eerie, the way they were after dark. The chains on the swing squeaked under Kili’s weight as he kicked off, and the empty beer bottle rolled satisfyingly far when he hit it with his sneaker. There was no wind, but the back-and-forth of the swing pushed chilly air right through his jumper. The sky was overcast without stars, and the air was heavy with the taste of snow.

He swung up – Fili’s lips had been so soft against his – and down – but he had pushed him away. It had been so good to hold him like that – but he’d asked if Kili was drunk. And he’d made this small gasp of surprise, and Kili had felt it more than heard, and he may be damned, but he had wanted more of that – but Fili had laughed it off, and people had been watching–

Behind him, off to his right, footsteps crunched on the gravel.

‘It’s getting cold. At least wear a jacket.’

Kili didn’t turn or reply, but leaned back, swinging higher. The gravel crunched some more, and the swing next to him squeaked into movement. Kili could not have told how long they went on like that, swinging in near-perfect synch, and in some inexplicable way, it made everything simple again, even if only for a moment.

‘Come on, jump!’ he heard himself shouting.

'All right! But you’ll lose!’ Fili called back and it was like they were in grade school again.

He saw Fili arch through the air and nail a near-perfect landing. He urged the swing higher and higher. Just a bit more–

‘Gonna chicken out, are you?’

And he went flying, high into the frost-clinging night, and stumbled into the ground, banging his knee and grazing his palms onto the gravel.

‘Beat you,’ he panted.

‘Like always.’ Something warm and heavy landed across his shoulders and back. ‘But you don’t always need to freeze to death.’ It was heavier than his own, it was Fili’s jacket, and it smelled of his cologne, and Kili’s heart was in his throat again, hard and painful. Fili tugged at the lapels of the jacket like it was a cape, and pulled him closer. His arms were trapped against his sides, and Fili’s breath fogged in the air between them, ghosted warm on his face as he leaned closer.

‘It was no accident, wasn’t it?’ he whispered, and his face was so serious that Kili felt tired and sad of a sudden. Looking down at his feet, he slowly shook his head.

‘Thought so, Mr. Smooth Moves.’ And then Fili’s arms wound tight around him, and he was so warm, so very warm. Kili rested his cheek against his shoulder, and let the tightness in his chest ease in one long, shuddering exhale. Something cold brushed at the side of his face. As he blinked his eyes open, big floppy snowflakes were slowly drifting down around them.

‘Want to do it properly?’

It was the easiest thing in the world, the smallest distance to cross; he barely even needed to tilt his head. Yet as Kili’s lips brushed over his brother’s it felt like the moment right after the jump, that blink of an eye when you’re cheating gravity, that single everlasting second when you feel like you can fly.

And for as long as it lasted, snow whirled down from the darkness and hid them from the world.


End file.
